Jaune and the Incident
by CinderFallOfHaven
Summary: Nine years ago, Jaune Arc was involved in a catastrophic incident that changed his life forever, but to this day his memories are clouded of what happened. After moving into his new school life, as if fate were playing a cruel joke, he meets two girls that become determined to help him before a new incident happens and takes everything away.
1. Prologue

Prologue

I've always been told that everything exists for a reason. I had no idea what they had meant until **the incident** happened. It was all over the news. I lived in a world I thought was happy, but just like all things…the happy moments came to an abrupt and disturbing end.

It's been years since **the incident** occurred. My memory of it have since been foggy and impossible to make out. Two entire years of my life have been erased. I get hints all around my house every now and then. A sister I never had. A mother that abandoned all sense of care. A father that works late on purpose. Siblings that will avoid me as if I were the plague. It's all normal to me now. I wish I could remember, but every attempt just leads back to questions.

"Who am I?" I will ask myself.

He always says in response, "I am me."

"Who is me?" I ask again.

He responds, "you are me."

"Where am I?" I ask.

He will say, "where I am."

Ever since my middle school days ended, I've given up school life in my hometown. I believed it was time for a change in scenery. A new place, a nice life, a new me. I fade into the dark and a different me emerges. Almost as if I never existed.

For everyone else, life goes on. Not a day out of place and not a second ever wasted. But for me, my life ended as soon as I left. But how was I supposed to know that meeting **those two** would ever bring me back?

…

I wonder how this story would've ended if I had stayed? Perhaps I'll find out in another life.


	2. And Then There Was Jaune

Chapter 1 – And Then There Were Jaune

Two months after starting my new life in Vale were met with obvious boredom. The school was a regular high school. Nothing interesting. Nothing out of the ordinary. No giant robots, no magical cosplay girls, no zombies, no ten girls fawning over me, no mystical swords, no anything. The most interesting part of my schedule was a break time where I could go hang out in the courtyard. It was there that I noticed a beautiful girl with silky red hair. She was always talking to a girl with long brown hair, so I never got the courage to go introduce myself. That was the highlight of my day. Stalking a beautiful girl.

But today was different. The brown-haired girl did not show up to school at all. The red-haired girl was sitting by herself and looked like she was texting someone, probably the brown-haired girl. I wanted to walk over to her and strike up a conversation. Anything to show that I wasn't creepy or harboring sick agendas against her.

I turned back to look at where she was sitting and she was staring directly at me. My heart jumped in my chest. She knew I was watching her now. She got up and walked over to me. She had a determined and strong walk, like if she were a warrior. She finally stopped at where I was sitting. I was aghast to notice that she wore a look of disgust instead of the carefree smile she normally had.

"I know you've been watching Velvet and I for the past few days. It's kind of getting on my nerves." These were words I never would have dreamed to hear from someone like her. "If you want to say something to me, go ahead and say it."

I got nervous because I was put on the spot so suddenly. I gathered what words I could think of and answered her, "I like your hair!"

"What?!" She was even more disgusted at this point. She probably thought I was some pervert.

"Wait, wait, wait, wait! Let me explain! I think it's beautiful!" I recoiled waiting for a slap or a punch in retaliation.

But it never came. She looked at me with shock and slight worry. It wasn't a look I was expecting, but it came as very little surprise.

"You're weird! Please, don't talk to me again." She started backing away. "I'm sorry!" She ran away with a quickly reddening face.

I had to blink a few times just to assess that that really happened. "What's that girl's deal?"

The red-haired girl began to avoid me after our encounter. She wasn't scared or disgusted, she always looked at me and lifted her nose. It was actually kind of arrogant and getting annoying.

The next day, the brown-haired girl returned to school. During the break, the two were talking again, this time the red-haired girl would point over at me every now and then as if saying something negative about me. The brown-haired girl didn't express any disgust, rather she began to walk over to me with the red-haired girl in tow.

"Do I know you?" The brown-haired girl asked in a gentle voice. "You look oddly familiar…"

"I just moved here this year from a different part of the country. I don't think I should look familiar." I was getting nervous. This girl seemed inquisitive. More so than the red-haired girl.

"Hmm…" She put her finger to her chin and seemed lost in thought.

The red-haired girl was intentionally fixated on a squirrel nearby on a tree. Every time I looked up at her, she averted her eyes immediately. Was she looking at me?

"Ah! I think I've got it!" The brown-haired girl exclaimed in glee. The red-haired girl was thrown off and nearly fell over from the sudden outburst. "Aren't you Jaune Arc?"

My heart stopped. She knew. That means she knew my history. "M-maybe. Why? Who wants to know?"

"Hey now! Is that any way to be talking to a girl!" The red-haired girl chided me.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean it that way…er…what's your name?" I didn't even remember her name. The red-haired girl had told me yesterday and I can't remember.

"Oh, how silly of me. I came over here, guns blazing, and didn't even bother to introduce myself!" The brown-haired girl reached out her hand and introduced herself, "my name is Velvet Scarlatina. It's a pleasure to meet you!"

I shook her hand, "it's nice to meet you Velvet. You already know my name is Jaune, so I guess I don't have to do that." I looked over at the red-haired girl who was looking up at the clouds, away from the conversation. Velvet elbowed her and the girl turned back to us. She had obviously been paying attention because she instantly stuck out her hand.

"My name is Pyrrha Nikos. Just because Velvet wants to talk to you doesn't mean we're friends, okay?" I shook her hand.

"Forget her. She's a bit mean sometimes. She doesn't actually mean it, though." Velvet smiled warmly.

"Velvet?! What the hell?! Don't say that!" Pyrrha was reddening in the face. Not from anger, but for some other reason.

"Anyways, I wanted to ask you something, Jaune." Velvet turned the attention back towards me. "You're a person of interest here. You see," she leaned in to whisper, "I know what happened to you."

"You do?" My heart was beating irregularly now.

"Yes. And unless you do something, it's going to happen again." Velvet backed away from me, leaving me in awe of what she said. "Okay! Let's be the best of friends!" She smiled determinedly.

Who is this girl? What does she know? How come she knows more about me than I know? How does she know that **the incident** will happen again?

These are all questions that I wished I never wanted to have answered.

Velvet Scarlatina, what do you want with me?


	3. Jaune Girl

Chapter 2 – Jaune Girl

 **At long last the story continues! Sorry for the wait!**

I woke up the next morning in a complete daze. Nothing of the previous day made much sense to me. Every time I tried to put it into perspective, it felt wrong. Velvet knows something about me. Something that I don't even know completely. Pyrrha seems completely unfazed by everything that Velvet said. Makes me wonder if she actually said it.

I got out of my bed in the dorm room to put on my casual clothes that I would most likely be wearing to school today. My roommate, Lie Ren, was still asleep. He always wore a sleeping mask and it makes it difficult to assess whether he's awake because of it. But I normally try to stay as quiet as possible in mutual respect for him. I grab my toothbrush and headed for the bathroom. The entire hallway was quiet and still. It was truly out of the ordinary, but it was also early in the morning. It wasn't entirely unbelievable that the guys at this school were still asleep. A good portion of them are party animals. Just the thought of it is enough to-

The bathroom door opened quickly and brutally as it smashed into my face. One of the guys further down the hall had kicked it open and sped back to his room. Completely disregarded my existence all together. Whatever, it's normal.

I get into the bathroom and clean up my face a little. My nose was a little bloodied, but a little bit of tissue paper and water were able to fix it up easily. I brushed my teeth as I looked out the window. The rhythmic sound of the brush gliding against the surface of my teeth was oddly soothing. Nothing ever really appeared to be uneasy to me. Everything I did was always a little lopsided to the world since my entire life has been the way it's been. I spit out the frothy grossness into the sink and run water on top of it rinsing it down the drain. I swish water around, gargle, spit. I grab a paper towel piece next to the sink and wipe my face off. After finishing that, I crumbled it up and tosses it towards the trash can, but it missed and fell onto the floor.

Tsk. I hate it whenever it misses. I bent over and picked it up to see a drop of blood hit the crumpled ball. I wipe at my nose in a brief flash of terror but realize there's nothing coming from me. I turned my head and looked above me. The source of the drop was nowhere to be found. I tossed the ball into the trash can and left the bathroom.

When I was at lunch, Velvet approached me once again with Pyrrha in tow.

"Why, hello again, Mr. Arc," Velvet announced with a smile. Pyrrha looked sour still and refused to talk to me, "it seems we were right to assume you'd be in the classroom today eating alone."

"It's a little sad," Pyrrha interjected coldly, "a shame you don't have any friends to speak of." She looked directly into my eyes, then darted her eyes away with a slight grimace.

"So, are you both just here to ridicule me, or is there a reason to this unpleasant meeting?" I asked with gumption. "If there's not a real reason, then I'm going to take my leave and eat somewhere else in peace."

"Hold you horses, Jauniboi," Velvet chuckled as she sat me back down, "we only just got here! You can't except two girls to come and be the source of your angst."

Disgusting. Utterly revolting. "Try me." I attempted to get up again, but my eyes met with Pyrrha's. Suddenly a shock of cold rushed through my body which compelled me to sit back down.

"I'm glad to see you've decided to stay," Velvet began, "BUT you should also know that we're here for a bigger and more important reason than just to ruin your quiet time."

"Oh yeah? What is it? More cryptic hints?"

Velvet elbowed Pyrrha lightly, "see? He does catch on quickly." Pyrrha only rolled her eyes in response. "Jaune," Velvet returned her focus to me, "can you tell me exactly what you remember about your childhood? I'm curious to know something."

"Oh? And what is it exactly that you want to know?" I spat back at her some of the most irritated lines I could think of.

"Cool it." Pyrrha glared at me. "Before I need to step in." Suggestion taken and filed away for consideration. Good news, it's been approved.

"What I want to know," Velvet continued without hesitation, "is exactly where your origin is."

"That's all? I'm just a little further north of Va-," but Velvet stopped me.

"I already know the location of your hometown. I want to know where your origin is." Velvet pointed at my head. "Do you even understand what I mean?" I shook my head no. I was at a loss for words. Velvet was being more cryptic than a sphynx at this point and I just wanted her to better elaborate what she meant. "Well, you'll figure it out in due time, I'm sure of it. For now, just focus on your own survival." She stood up and Pyrrha followed suit.

"What do you mean by survival? My origin? What?" I had a million questions for her and everything was starting to buzz. I looked up at Pyrrha in a panic. Everything was started to lose their colors. I could tell there was panic in Pyrrha's eyes.

Suddenly all sound cut out. I looked around and tried to scream but I couldn't hear it. I looked up at Velvet who suddenly appeared more mature and in control. She seemed to be shouting something at Pyrrha and pointing at me in an aggressive nature. Pyrrha was covering her ears and looked like she was screaming. Sound started to come back to me, but it was just a ringing noise that was getting louder and louder to the point where I thought my brain was going to explode. Velvet looked down at me. I didn't even realize that I had fallen over onto the floor. She picked me up and looked like she mouthed "sorry" and punched me in the face.

I lost consciousness and had gotten hit in the face for the second time today.

What a life.


	4. The Jaune on the Train

Chapter 3 – The Jaune on the Train

Ding dong, ding dong!

The final bell for the day rang, and as soon as it did, "Jaune! Hey!" Velvet was standing by the classroom door waving at me. What does she want now?

I walked over to her while avoiding classmates that were still gathering books, sliding out their chairs, and running over to their friends. As I got to her, I noticed she was not standing alone. Next to her was a girl with long, beautiful white hair.

"Uh, do I know you? I feel like I've met you before." I said as I approached the two of them.

"Ugh. Why do I have to talk to this peon, Velvet?" The girl grunted.

"Hey, c'mon. You haven't even given him a chance yet," Velvet jammed her elbow into the girl's side and she jumped a little, "Jaune, this girl is very influential and will be the key in helping you!"

"Helping me?" I pointed at myself in confusion. "Help me how?"

"Ugh. My name is Weiss Schnee. Heiress to the Schnee Music Corporation." Weiss flipped her hair back.

"Oh! That's why you look so familiar!" I exclaimed in a sudden outburst. "I didn't even recognize you off of the TV screen!"

She took a step back. She looked absolutely disgusted with me. I don't know if it was how I was acting, but back in my hometown, we weren't accustomed to meeting rather famous people.

"Anyways, Jaune. Weiss here is going to help you understand exactly what you need to remember about **the incident** that happened all those years ago!" Velvet said in an excited tone. She was definitely enjoying learning about something that doesn't involve her.

"Wait, how is she supposed to help me?" I asked.

"Really? You haven't figured that out? I was backstage on the exact night it happened in your Podunk, backwater town," Weiss spit out every adjective she could think of that could describe an awful place to live in, "and I can tell you exactly what I remember."

"That would actually help. Thank you!" I smiled as warmly as I could.

Weiss grimaced at me and turned away. How cold was this girl exactly? "Just because I know what happened, doesn't mean I'll help you willingly."

"What?" I took a step back. What a bitch.

"If, and only if, you can successfully get Yang Xiao Long to step down from Student Body President to Vice President in the upcoming election, then I will help you." Weiss pointed her index finger at me. Her declaration of war against Yang Xiao Long posed as a rather odd and unnecessary divulgence in the strategy at hand. But…

"If it means you'll help me, then I'll talk to her about running for VP instead of President." I grit my teeth and delivered the words begrudgingly.

"Perfect! The election is in two weeks! Better act quickly!" She strolled away in a very happy manner.

I turned to Velvet, who looked rather pleased with herself, "and what is this supposed to gain? Now we have to take off two weeks to secure information from her."

"Don't worry about it, Jaune. We can still work on opening your mind to remember what happened back then," She raised a finger to her lips, "but for now, maybe you should do some talking with Yang." And with that, she grabbed my wrist and yanked me down the hall.

"Uh, Velvet? Where are we going?" I was beginning to get worried.

"We're going to talk to Yang. The election race starts tomorrow, so we're going to tell Yang now what we want her to do!" Moments later, we stood outside of the student council's room. "Be cautious. She has a bit of temper." Velvet pat my head as if saying goodbye.

"Oh, now you tell me?!" I gawked.

Velvet knocked twice on the door and we waited. It felt like an eternity before the door opened revealing a rather busty girl with long yellow hair. There was no need to even question who this was.

"Yo! You need something?" The girl asked us.

"Yang Xiao Long, right?" I asked her.

"That's correct." Yang nodded in agreement.

"We have something rather pressing to discuss with you." Velvet stood in before I could say anything.

"Hmm? Is that so? What is it?" She folded her arms across her chest.

"We were wondering if you could maybe run for VP in the upcoming election." I got the words out as quickly as I could.

"What?" Yang uncrossed her arms and her lilac eyes slanted. Wait, were they lilac? They look kind of red now. "Are you saying you want me to downgrade myself?"

"No, Ms. Xiao Long, that's not what we're trying to say!" Velvet raised her hands, prepared to block any oncoming attacks. "We're trying to say that we think your wonderful leadership would help someone else. Besides, we all know that the VP in student bodies are really the ones that pull the strings. The president is just a figure head." Yang did not look persuaded by Velvet's words.

"Yang, what exactly would it take for us to convince you that this is a good idea?" I stepped forward, finally taking charge of the situation for once.

"Oh, I don't know. Maybe punching yourself in the gut and a good slap to the face." Yang said in an aggressive tone.

I breathed in and raised my fist. And with one swift motion, I punched myself in the gut. It was so hard, that it knocked the wind right out of my lungs. I was hunched over for a few seconds. I stole a glance away from the floor and saw that Yang's eyes were now wide with surprise and Velvet's were the same. I straightened my body, then raised my right hand, and slapped myself across my face. It stung for a few seconds, and after it went away, all I heard was Yang laughing.

"Oh my God! I didn't know you'd do that!" Yang began to wipe tears from her eyes. "That was truly hilarious!"

While I was still panting and gulping down gallons of air, I choked out, "so, do we have you convinced?"

Yang was still laughing so hard, but she managed to put a nod into her laugh attack. "You're really something else! What did you say your name was?"

I groaned a bit, "Jaune Arc…" I managed to get out before cringing in pain, "my name is Jaune Arc."

Yang stopped laughing as hard and reached out her hand, "well, Jaune, I'm willing to entertain the idea." I grasped her hand and we shook on it. "Please, come inside the student council room. I'll grab you something to drink so that you can," she paused to laugh, "re-cooperate."

I sat down at one of the tables in the rather large and accommodating room. I never thought that our school would have such a large room just for the student council. Velvet came inside and sat down across from me. She twiddled her thumbs as Yang looked around a cabinet.

"Jaune, there's something I've been meaning to tell you since school let out. About earlier." Velvet started to bring up the incident at lunch.

"Yeah, what was going on? I'm still finding it hard to wrap my head around it." I balanced my chin in the ball of my hand while looking at Velvet. Is she finally going to explain some things that she was talking about?

"Well, yeah, I don't know why that started to happen, but I wanted to apologize for punching you in the face and sending you to the nurse's office until like the last period of the day." Velvet smiled innocently. The kind of smile you'd normally want to shrug off something and pretend it never happened.

"Thanks, that explains everything." But I'm not you. "I just want to know why all the sound cut out and why the awful ringing came in and where it came from. Is Pyrrha okay? I mean, she looked like she was in pain, too."

"The sound cut out? Ringing?" Velvet looked genuinely confused at what I just said. "Well, whatever happened, it's fine now. Pyrrha went back to her dorm short after that because she wasn't feeling well. I'm going to go visit her after we're done here."

"Well, I guess that's as close to answering my questions as you're going to get. You never answer them directly and just normally end up making more questions than necessary." I sighed heavily.

"Oh, come off it. You're just as confused as I am." Velvet rolled her eyes and had a half-smirk on her face.

"Okay, I've got water and some raspberry iced tea. Which would you prefer?" Yang returned with drink suggestions.

"I'll take some of the tea, if you don't mind." Velvet raised her hand.

"Water, thanks." I answered.

"Alright, coming right up." Yang brought back a cup of water and a cup of tea to the table. She placed the drinks accordingly and sat down with her own drink at the end of the table. Her's looked to be a more colorful drink than either water or tea. She propped her feet up on the table and then turned to me, "Now, Jaune. Why should I exactly move down to the VP position. Is there anything for you to gain from this? Are you running to take my place?"

"No! Of course not!" I started to say but Yang cut me off before I could explain further.

"The girl here said that the VP pulls all the strings, maybe you just want a little bit of excitement in your life." She had a look on her face that was a mix of perversion and mock. "I am kidding, of course. You don't look like that kind of type." What even is this girl? "Well, whatever reason, I'm more inclined to agree." I'm sorry, what? "You see, the current girl that's running for president is my younger sister."

I cut her off in surprise, "wait! Weiss is your sister?"

"Her? Ew! No." Yang recoiled in disgust at even the thought of Weiss being her younger sister. "Ruby is my sister. She's currently the only one running for president and no one seems to be in the VP position. So, I figured it might be good to let her take over and I help her if necessary. Really, I just needed the extra push for it to happen." This is definitely going in our favor. "But what's this about Weiss?" Yang leaned inwards towards us with a serious look on her face.

Velvet looked at me with a 'fix this' look on her face. I looked over towards Yang and thought quickly, "well, I think it's just better to tell the whole truth rather than dance around it and lie." I inhaled deeply and exhaled quickly. "We needed Weiss to help us with something and the only way she would help us is if we talked to you about becoming VP. We don't know her motives for this, but this is all she asked for us."

I braced for a storm of fury from Yang, but all I got was a quizzical look from her as if she was trying to read my face. When she decided she was done she sighed, "well, with that princess, there's no telling what her motive is. I will still agree to step down from presidency to VP, but if Weiss tries to run for the president position, I will campaign heavily for Ruby and assure her victory. Do I make myself clear?" Basically, what she was telling us was 'get in my way and you'll pay'. We both nodded our heads in agreement. "Good, then we have no problem."

"Thank you, Yang, for listening to our odd request." Velvet chimed in. "We're so grateful to have a president like you running the student council."

"Aw, it's nothing." Yang put her arms up behind her head. "Now, I think you both have stayed after pretty long enough. Go ahead and find the Ice Pop Queen and let her know that I will partially comply to her wishes."

Yang escorted us out of the room and closed the door behind us. Velvet and I started to walk down the hall and went straight to the music room. There was no guarantee that Weiss would be there, but we wanted to try anyways.

"She's not here." Velvet sighed in disappointment. "Where do you think she could be?"

The possibilities raced through my head of the girl's whereabouts. There was the possibility that she had already gone home, but that wasn't an idea I wanted to think about completely. I pushed it to the back of my mind and continued to think. "Why don't we just check all of the spots here? She might have gone home, but I want to hope that she's still here."

So, we both split up. Velvet gave me her number and decided to go check out the gym, the courtyard, and the classrooms on the west side of the building. I decided to check the roof first. If there's any trope that I know well, it's that there's always going to be someone hanging out on the roof. I just need to hope it's Weiss.

I headed up the flight of stairs from the second floor past the third floor and finally to the roof. I grabbed the door knob and started to turn it when I heard singing. It was a soft and sweet melody that nearly pulled me into a trance.

The singing went: Mirror, tell me something, tell me who's the loneliest of all. Mirror, tell me something, tell me who's the loneliest of all. Fear of what's inside me, tell me can a heart be turned to stone?

Then silence. I opened the door to see that it was in fact Weiss singing. She looked right at home up on the roof and in a complete trance. I stepped out onto the roof and closed the door as quietly as possible so that I could continue hearing her sing. At that point, she had begun to harmonize with no one, as if she could hear music exclusive to her. A sound that was all inside of her head.

Then she continued: Mirror mirror what's behind you? Save me from the things I see! I can keep it from the world, why won't you let me hide from me? Mirror mirror, tell me something, who's the loneliest of all? I'm the loneliest of all.

As she completed the song, I began to instinctively clap at the beauty of her voice. She was instantly knocked out of her trance, completely embarrassed as she turned to face me. "JAUNE?! What're you doing?!" She was flustered and blushing a beet red. After calming down a little, she sighed, "how much did you hear?"

"Uh.." I couldn't get more than a stammer out, but that was enough to tell her.

"That song isn't out yet to the public. Nobody knows that it exists except for the company and me…and now, you." She tried to act coldly, but she was still incredibly embarrassed. "What do you want." She reeled back towards me.

"I just, uh, came to, uh, tell you that we, like uh, convinced Yang?" I stammered even more than usual.

"Hmm. Take what you just said, now take out the 'uhs' and the 'like' in there. Correct grammar is the only way to be a functional human." She rolled her eyes.

I cleared my throat and tried again, "I just came to tell you that we convinced Yang to step down from the president position."

"Oh?" She was shocked. "Well, good." She tried to recover and act like it wasn't surprising or that I had already seen her shocked, "I never really doubted that it would be that difficult." She failed.

"Now, why is it that you wanted her to step down from president position?" I thought it was my turn to start asking her questions after her series of non-stop inquisitions.

"That's very simple." She started to say, but then started to blush again at the thought of her answer, "it's only because my friend wanted to run for president and I didn't want Yang to be in the way."

"Your friend? Wait, you have friends?" I should have worded that better because that sounds about as insulting as what Velvet and Pyrrha said.

"Why, yes! I do, as a matter of fact. Where do you get off," Weiss was about to explode with every bit of anger she had inside of her, but I put up my hands as a way of saying 'I didn't mean it like that'. She cooled off a little and looked at me with her piercing eyes. "I'll bet you're wondering two things right now."

"In fact, I am. I'm wondering what you," I stopped and thought about what she said, "wait. Two?"

"Yes, two." She continued. "You're probably wondering who my friend is. The one who wanted to run for president. And what I know about your hometown."

"Well, yes, I would definitely want to know more about what happened in my hometown," I began, "but I would also like to know who your friend is. This might be a wrench in the plan all together."

"The friend is a very simple answer." Weiss turned to face away from me because I could tell she was blushing again. "My friend is a freshman girl named Ruby. There, happy?"

"Whoa? Really? That actually does make me happy!" I made sure she could hear the excitement in my voice. "That's the girl that Yang wanted to succeed her as president! I mean, they're sisters after all."

"Really? I didn't know they were sisters. Ruby never talked about…I guess she assumed that I already knew, I guess." Weiss shifted the tip of her foot around in a swivel.

"So, wait, she never told you that Yang was her sister? Have you never been over to her house before? Never hung out outside of school?" I started to become more interrogative.

"No. We never got the chance to hang out outside of school. Because I'm always supposed to be busy. Every single time the final bell rings, I'm supposed to be ready to go home and do everything that's been told to me. I don't have the chance to do it, no matter how much I would like to." Weiss was starting to break into tears.

"Weiss, you don't have to unload everything on me. I understand that you don't have the luxury of doing fun things. As a talented pop icon, you have to be on a strict schedule and I get that," I was starting to say, but Weiss cut me off again.

"Do you? Do you get it? Or are you only saying that to make me feel better." Weiss was on the defensive again. She waited a little bit and I realized she was opening her fists into number format. She appeared to be calm now. "Jaune, thank you for doing what you said you would do. Now, I'll keep my end of the deal and tell you everything about your hometown." I was starting to be relieved, "but, we need to find your friend first. I'm sure she'd want to hear all about it. And we need to go somewhere private." She looked around nervously. "I'm not sure the rooftop is a good fit. We could be overheard."

"By who?" I was confused.

"By anything." She responded.


	5. Dusk Jaune of Amnesia

Chapter 4 – Dusk Jaune of Amnesia

 **Before you start this chapter, know that this one is solely from Weiss's POV until 2/3 into it. Also, fair warning to people suffering from depression and suicidal thoughts as this might have content that could trigger memories for you.**

"Oh, Weiss, I have big things planned for you." This is all that she ever heard from her birth. Her cold and disapproving life began the way that she traveled from a decision she never made.

"Of course, father. I won't disappoint you." She responded always.

When Weiss was only a child she was always told beautiful and marvelous thing. She was compared to a princess out of a fairy story, she was compared to have the vocals of a Greek goddess, she was even compared to have the same beauty that Aphrodite was known for. All of these things were wonderful to hear, but they all meant nothing. It took her until she was around 8 years old to realize just how empty these compliments are.

"Weiss, I love your hair! It's so cute how it's styled today!"

"Why thank you! That's such a kind thing of you to say." She would respond with a smile.

"We should be friends now! That sounds like a great idea."

Of course, Weiss knew that these people were only after her money. Her fame. Her fortune. Everything that she had built up that wasn't her's.

"Weiss, we've already booked a concert for you." Her father approached her when she was only just turning 12. "Seeing as how it'll help benefit that town we were in. Like a charity auction."

Something inside her snapped. She turned right to her father and let him have it, "I'm sick and fucking tired of always having to do the work you assigned me! Do you think I even like singing? You think I like these PEOPLE? They only want to be near me because our family is rich and has history. How can't you get it through your head?" Her father showed no mercy on her.

For the next few weeks, Weiss was bedridden. Her broken arm, which was snapped by her father, lay limp and void of any feeling in it. During her stay in her room, only her sister and mother came to see her. None of the people that called themselves her friends dared to even stop by.

Occasionally, she would try to sneak out of her room and go to the kitchen for a snack. She was tired of only having gruel and oatmeal for every meal of the day. She had to pass by her father's office to get there and she overheard a conversation.

"I don't care, Willow." Her father sounded steamed.

"What is your problem, Jacques? I just found out from security that YOU are the cause for Weiss's broken arm. How could you?" Willow was starting to say her piece, but Jacques cut her off.

"How could I? How could you raise such an impudent little shit that would dare talk back to her own father?" Jacques slammed his hands down on his desk. "As far as I see it, she is no daughter of mine. She's just another client."

"Jacques, I can't believe I ever married you." Willow hissed in a disgusted tone. "You only wanted my father's music enterprise, didn't you? All you wanted was to be rich, huh? You never once cared for me or my family! You just wanted what you didn't have and faked it until you made it!"

"Listen here you bitch. How dare you make accusations that you have no basis on."

"All I have to do is listen to how you speak! You never would have called me a bitch! You never would have called our daughter an impudent little shit!" Willow was starting to break down. "If I could, I would absolutely love to file for a divorce and take everything away from you!" Then Weiss heard the sound of contact. Not a slap, but a punch to the jaw. Her mother collapsed on the floor and started to whimper.

"I have no issue with whatever I must to do to have everything I couldn't. I will not allow you to take that away from me, understand?"

"I hate you." Weiss muttered under her breath. Weiss walked away from the door as quietly as possible. Everything she had heard made her realize what she feared the most. She continued on towards the kitchen. She avoided all contact with other people on her mission.

After reaching the kitchen, she got as much water as she wanted. She drank up as much as she could before she felt full. She pulled open every drawer she could until she found **it**.

Later, Winter knocked on her bedroom door. "Weiss? Are you in there? I brought you a little something different from oatmeal. Klein was a bit busy fixing father's messes, but I was able to whip up some chili. It's a little more substantial." She paused and waited for a while. "Weiss, are you asleep? I'm going to come in to check on you and leave the food at your bedside." Winter opened the door to be greeted by red. Red on the floor, red on the bed, and her Weiss's clothes. Winter screamed as loudly as possible, dropped the bowl, and ran immediately to Weiss's side. "WEISS? WHAT DID YOU DO?" Weiss did not respond, though. Winter put her index finger and her middle finger to Weiss's neck and checked for a pulse. Mildly relieved, she picked up Weiss's limp body that was looking paler than normal and began to run down the hall. Nobody had heard her scream.

Willow immediately ran to the hospital with Winter when Winter showed her what happened to Weiss. They waited in the lobby for what seemed like years until the doctor approached them and said that Weiss was going to be okay. They get there in time to have her arms stitched up and performed a blood transfusion in order to get enough blood cells flowing through her heart and arteries to keep her alive.

Every time that Winter and Willow went to see Weiss, Weiss had a vacant look to her eyes. As if she were alive, but there was no soul there. After a while, Willow couldn't stand to see Weiss this way anymore and refused to come inside the room. Winter wouldn't stop though, she kept trying.

She kept trying.

She kept trying.

She kept trying for years. Eventually, around Weiss's 15th birthday, Weiss finally came back to her. Winter cried, and for the first time in a while, Weiss did, too.

She eventually found the strength to fully recover. Winter helped, and after receiving word about Weiss's recover, Willow joined. Soon after, Weiss was strong willed enough to return to form and continue what she was doing, but not for her father, but for herself.

"And that's my life story." Weiss sat back on my chair. "I'm sure you didn't want to hear all the gross parts, so I left a good chunk out for you."

Velvet and I just stared in shock as to what we had just heard. Weiss's story was no more shocking than it was horrifying. It left a bad taste in my mouth.

"So, wait, what does this have to do with me?" Ren put his laptop down to the side. "Why did I need to be here?"

"You're supposed to be lookout in case something seems out of place. I wanted to talk about my history to make anyone," Weiss paused to look at me and Velvet, "or anything uninterested in what I had to say next."

I turned and glanced towards the window to see if there was anything outside, but nothing but darkness surrounded the window as it became night by the time Weiss's story was over.

"Fine, I'll keep on lookout. But you owe me, Jaune." Ren pointed at me.

"What do you want me to do?" I sighed.

"My girlfriend is coming over this weekend and I need you to make yourself scarce around here." Ren said with the slightest bit of begging subtly mixed into what he was saying.

"Yeah, I can do that." I approved of his request.

"Good." He put headphones on and got back onto his laptop, clicking away violently.

"Anyways, something that I wanted to mention specifically were the days leading up to **the incident**." Weiss started up again. "There were a few signs that started to show up here and there that only got worse until the day of the incident. I was at the concert venue performing my newest single "It's My Turn" when a massive vertical beam of light burst up into the sky. I would've just assumed it was a skylight, but then the ground began to shake and a whole bunch of…" But before Weiss could continue, Ren shushed her.

"What's going on?" I looked at Ren who was eyeing his monitor with wide eyes.

Ren looked up at us three with absolute fear in his eyes, "you all need to get out of here. NOW."


	6. The End

Chapter 5 – The End…

 **I'm going to issue a warning for readers. This is where the series will feel like it's shifting and I'm glad you've stuck around this long. Trust me, it's going to be worth the wait.**

Ren looked at us three with absolute fear in his eyes, "you all need to get out of here. NOW."

"What? What's going on, Ren?" I felt my heart jump into my throat.

"Look here," Ren turned his laptop towards us and we saw that the news was bringing us a 9-1-1 call that was reported from the same dorm building as us, "if you three don't get out, who knows who could be coming for you." He pointed specifically at Weiss.

"M-Me? Why just me?" Weiss was very frightened at this mention.

"You're the one who knows about Jaune the most. Someone probably wants it to be secret." Ren looked back at his laptop. "Listen, I know a back way out of this building. A way not many people know."

"Wait! No! We can't leave!" Velvet grabbed my arm and held on tightly.

"What do you mean?" I can't think of the reason, but then it dawns on me.

"Pyrrha's still in here! We can't leave her!" Velvet looks at me with pleading eyes. "I don't know much of what to do in this situation, but she's my best friend. Please, Jaune."

I smiled right at her, "I was never thinking of leaving her." Velvet gave me the biggest hug she has ever given me, and I look at Ren. "Do you think you could lead Weiss to that exit? I'm going with Velvet to get Pyrrha and we'll meet at the bottom."

"That sounds good to me. If we act now, then we should be able to leave without a problem." Ren nodded his head.

"Alright, let's get going." I stand up and head for the door with Velvet in tow. I push open the door and look down both sides before proceeding to go towards the elevator. I press the up arrow as I see Ren and Weiss head towards the stairs.

"Jaune, no matter what happens," Velvet looks at me with her mysterious brown eyes, "no matter who we run into or what. No matter anything," Velvet moves into the elevator as the doors open wide and she turns to look at me, "thank you, for humoring a girl in her pursuit of knowledge." She smiled her usual smile, but this one felt warm and gentle.

I stepped into the elevator after her, "let's keep the 'no matters' until after we rescue Pyrrha."

"Right." The elevator doors close and we begin to ascend. It doesn't take long for us to get that creeping feeling that something isn't right. The numbers grow higher as we get to the 5th floor, but the number gauge drops to 4 and back to 5. "Velvet, do you see…" but I was interrupted as the elevator shudders, quakes, and trembles as it comes to a forced stop.

The lights begin to flicker and die out. I heard Velvet scream in the darkness. I fumble for my phone in my pocket and shortly after I pull it out, I lose my grip and it hits the tip of my shoe causing it to tumble further into the elevator. I get down on my knees, waiting a second to allow my eyes to adjust to the darkness and then I went forward to feel around for my phone. Eventually, my hand bumps against the object and I grab it victoriously. I turn on my flashlight and see Velvet huddled in the corner with her hands on her ears crying softly to herself.

"Velvet? Velvet!" I cry out to her and she opens her eyes. I reach out to her with the light shining on her. "Come on, we need to work together to get out of here!" She grabs my hand with her shaky and uncertain one and I hoist her up on her feet. "First, we'll need to pry open these elevator doors so that we can get to Pyrrha." We get over to the door and press all of our fingers between the crack and try our best to force the doors open.

"Jaune, this isn't working!" Velvet began to cry out. "We won't make it to her if we stand around like this."

"Alright then," I point the flashlight up to the ceiling, "then we can climb up the service ladder and try our luck from there."

"I'll need you to help me up so that I can get to it." Velvet looks at me and looks at the emergency exit.

"Weren't you just in the corner?" I ask her as nicely as I possibly could.

"Aren't you like way outside of what I could bench?" She responded as nicely as she possibly could.

"Fair enough." I start to help her up, but the elevator jolts to life, throwing us to the ground as it brings us to the 5th floor. We both crawl out quickly as to not get stuck in the elevator again. The doors close shut and we breathe more steadily as we finally reached the floor we needed to be on. It's darkened in the entire hallway with two red fire exit signs that illuminate both ends of the hall. "Which way is Pyrrha's room." Velvet pointed at a door a little bit down the hall.

We began to walk towards where Velvet pointed, but as we got closer I realized that the wallpaper had deep gashes in it. As if someone had struck it with a knife. Velvet's eyes grow wide as we notice that Pyrrha's dorm room door has been smashed open in a forced entry. We step inside and look around trying to find any evidence of what happened. It looked to be a single room, so she wouldn't have had a roommate that could call for help. Things were looking bad when Velvet called out for me.

"Jaune! Jaune come back to the closet!" Velvet called out to me. I retreated to the front of the room as we looked in the closet. Pyrrha was shoved inside of the closet with some obvious wounds from a knife or perhaps a cleaver. Her blouse had been torn and bloodied, but she was still alive.

"Velvet? Is that you?" Pyrrha croaked out softly.

"Yes, Pyrrha. Yes, it's me!" Velvet was stroking Pyrrha's hair as Pyrrha smiled.

"Good, I've been hoping you would come for me."

"Pyrrha, who did this to you?" I asked with a quake of fear being present in my voice.

"Jaune, that doesn't matter right now. What matters is that we get her out of her and to safety before whoever did this comes back!" Velvet helped Pyrrha to her feet and I moved to help keep her up from the other side. "Alright, let's head for the exit."

We began to hobble Pyrrha out of her room and going towards the left when I noticed that the red neon sign was being blocked out completely.

"Velvet, not that way." I spoke out quietly.

"What?" Velvet looked at me and then back at the hall.

"Velvet, not that way!" The thing blocking out the light started to move and get closer. "RUN!" We turned and hobbled as quickly as possible in the other direction. Sure enough, whatever was on the end of the hall started to make loud and booming steps as it chased after us. We got further down the hall and the booming got closer. "Hurry! Go!" Pyrrha was breathing sharply in pain but was going as quickly as she could. We got to the fire exit and slammed open the door and piled inside the landing. I pressed my body against the door and closed it tightly. The booming kept getting closer and closer. Velvet ran up to the next landing and brought back the pole used to open the attic space. I propped the pole against the door and the stairs, successfully jamming the door shut. Velvet and I got back to holding Pyrrha up as we descended the stairs.

We got down to the third floor when we heard what sounded like the pole snapping and the booming entering the stairs. We tried to go as fast as we could, but the stairs were getting more difficult to navigate with both an injured person and the fear of what was following us. We silently hoped that whatever it was decided to ascend the stairs to look for us. All was too eerily silent, which sat horribly with me. We finally got to the first floor and pushed open the emergency exit.

On the other side of the door was the south lawn nearest the school. We turned to the left and made our way around the building to see cop cars and everything near the front of the building. Velvet and I started to scream for help as we approached. A few cops came over to assist and paramedics escorted Pyrrha over to the ambulance.

The detective on the case came over to ask us a few questions on what happened inside the building and what happened to Pyrrha. We told them everything that we could from the moment we were told by Ren to leave, the elevator, finding Pyrrha, the thing in the hallway, and then the staircase escape.

After we were done being questioned, we started to relax over by a paramedic station. Velvet turned to me, "Jaune, you know what you said earlier about the 'no matters'?"

"Yeah, of course I do." I smiled at her.

"Well, can I say them now?" She asked as her eyes started to wander away.

"You've already said what you wanted…" I stopped and thought for a second. Something didn't seem right. "Velvet does something feel wrong to you?"

"No…well, now that you say…" She looks up the building and begins to scream. I follow her eyes and know exactly what was going down, even though it still didn't feel real to me.

We watched in horror as Ren plummeted from the roof of the dorm building.

Chapter 6 – The End of Normal Life


End file.
